Page 92 of Hart of Darkness
Sick bastard.
I knew what I was thinking shouldn’t be said, but I had to say it anyway. I had to show Cory I wasn’t afraid like I’d been that night. I had to show him that ears weren’t the only things I could bite off or rip apart.
“You’re right about one thing,” I said. “I’mgoing to have a good time.” I would do everything in my power to make sure Cory felt pain. Up until now, I’d wanted to do the right thing in my revenge to take down Cory. Not anymore. I wanted to kill him once and for all. I wanted to end his life so he wouldn’t violate and hurt another woman again. Jail would be easy for him. A slow death would be a far better punishment.
The women in the cages were silent, though I bet they would want the same. I could only imagine how many women Cory had ruined both physically and mentally in the years since he’d attacked me.
First though, I had questions. “Why am I here?” I addressed Cory’s boss.
“I need your help,” Hooknose said.
I laughed, a hearty one, and in that moment, I realized something.Caged women. Cory. Black Knights.I was talking to Miguel Rivera. “You’re the leader of the Black Knights. You’re Miguel.” I’d been so obsessed with Cory that I hadn’t connected the dots sooner.
Cory chewed on his thin lip. “Miguel, let’s end her now. I’ll take care of her body.”
I should have been shaking in my flats, and part of me was, but I’d wanted to infiltrate the Black Knights as an undercover prostitute. So there I was. Only I was confused. Miguel wanted my help?
Miguel hauled short, stubby fingers down the length of his jaw, while the lone light from above glinted off the blade he held with his other hand. “I see we have a smarty-pants here. Bravo. You figured out I’m Miguel. Let me share some facts about you.”
Cory folded his arms over his white shirt, which I hoped would be saturated in red by the time I was done with him. He opened his stance then cupped his hands in front of him.
I snarled for no other reason than to make me feel as though I were doing something.
“Maggie Marx,” Miguel started. “Reporter for theBoston Eagle.Grew up in the foster care system. A former gang member for…” He tapped the blade to his lips. “Bloodhounds. Yep, that’s right. Friends with Detective Ted Hughes. You live by yourself in a run-down apartment in the south end, drive a beat-up VW Bug. Your boyfriend is Dillon Hart, who runs a shelter for runaway girls. It recently opened if I’m not mistaken. How am I doing so far?”
Most of that information on me was public knowledge. Well, maybe not foster care or that I was close to Ted. Dillon’s shelter, on the other hand, was a business, which meant that was public record. Nevertheless, sex trafficking and runaway girls at a shelter mixed quite well for Miguel. At least the spark in his eyes said so, and that made me grip the arms of the chair tighter.
“You’re wrong about one thing.” My tone was even. “Dillon Hart isn’t my boyfriend.”
Miguel bobbed his head. “You don’t mind if I kill him, then. You don’t mind if I kill his sister either or his brother doing time in the joint?”
My pulse was sprinting around the track. “You can’t kill someone who is dead, and the Hart sister is dead.” I all but spat poisonous venom at him. I couldn’t show I cared. The minute he got any notion that I did, he would use it to his advantage somehow. “Anyway, how does your knowledge of me got anything to do with me helping you?”
Miguel ran a finger over the sharp edge of the blade. “You’re going to help me get Hart’s sister. The one you claim is dead isn’t. The one who has been working for me.”
Grace had run away at sixteen. A runaway girl at that age would be vulnerable, would fall into the charms of a man, especially if she was seeing the world for the first time. And she would be the perfect candidate for sex trafficking—young, pretty, and naive. “Say she is alive, I can’t see how I could help.” I’d never met Grace, and a total stranger wouldn’t trade her life for mine.
“Ah,” Cory said. “As smart as you are, you’re kind of stupid.”
I rolled my eyes.
“You see, Maggie,” Miguel continued, ignoring his underling. “I’m banking that Dillon Hart has a soft spot for you. After all, you were at his house all night not that long ago.”
The bastard had been tailing me. Ted had been right. Dillon had been right. I’d never gotten the sense someone had been following me, though, not until earlier that night.
Cory gave me a smirk of all smirks that saidyou’re going to be great bait.“He’s going to come for his girl.”
Miguel’s upper lip lifted as a glimmer of excitement swept across his face. “We’re going to make it easy for him. He’ll come for you. Grace will show up to save her brother, and boom, I get what I want. You see, Maggie, Grace loves her brothers. She’ll do anything for them. That’s one of the reasons I haven’t killed Denim yet, although my men in prison did a number on him. It’s funny what my men can uncover in prison. But I couldn’t use Denim for this job. I couldn’t even use Duke, not with all his bodyguards. Besides, I eventually want to do business with the older Hart brother.”
Duke was an ass, but after his furious exchange with Dillon recently, I didn’t get the impression that he would delve into the sex-trafficking business.
Regardless, Miguel was underestimating Dillon. Rafe was a badass that I wouldn’t want to be caught on a dark street with. Hunt was equally as scary, and he worked for the Guardian, which was owned by a mob boss if I weren’t mistaken. I had tried to do a story on Jeremy Pitt when I’d first started at theEagle.To my inexperienced surprise, my story hadn’t gone to print. I suspected Jeremy had paid off the big bosses upstairs. I didn’t know that for sure. Still, Hunt had an army of ex-military dudes he could call on if Dillon needed backup.
What am I thinking? All Dillon has to do is contact Ted. I’m not sure if he will given the tense interaction they had.
The gorilla who had grabbed me at the restaurant marched up and whispered something into Miguel’s ear.
Miguel waved his hand. “I’ll be right there.”
